Ground level around 1.5m high

[Jblakes]

Morning All,

We have a old cottage with a 20 year old extension on the side, for some reason the idiots that built this left the ground levels on one wall around 1.5metres high, as in next door house is 1.5m higher up from us ( on a hill kinda).

We are doing the kitchen (in extension) and noticed damp coming through that wall, so my plan is to knock off to above the level outside and stich some NHL 2 lime plaster to help this. I know the solution it to dig this up outside and leave a air gap, which i believe we can do but next year. For a temp fix, could i not get a drill and hammer a few holes through the concrete and whatever is below it ( guessing mud) and fill with gravel creating vertical drainage (like people do with boggy grass area), would this work even if just a temp fix?

I don't want to put the new kitchen in and find it ruined by the time we come round to sorting properly.

kind regards
James

 

[Glenn586]

Hello,

In theory by allowing the wall to breath with lime it should be enough to remedy this however:- if you are covering the wall with kitchen units etc you will end up with too little ventilation for the moisture to wick out. If you internally insulate the wall with wood fibre this will help. I have done this at 1m below ground level and the wood fibre seems to be able to release the moisture over a greater surface area so the problem has disappeared in my case. No case will ever be the same due to the lie of the land, I have two more of these situations that need tackling and I have attached a sketch of what I will be doing to tackle them.

300mm of foam glass has similar insulating performance to 100mm of kingspan so overtime will pay for itself. 40mm of wood fibre insulation alone would halve the heat loss from the wall.

Kind Regards

Glenn

 

[Jblakes]

Cheers, i was thinking of using wood wool boards behind the kitchen and leaving a small air gap and hoping that will sort it.